Tacking Prompt - First Meet
It was...a very, very odd sight. Something I wasn't quite sure how to process. And definitely not what I would of expected to come face to face to when going out to check on the chickens that morning. I could tell something was off when not a single one of them ran out the door to greet me, or at least the bucket containing their breakfast. I tapped on the side of the coop, calling them outside in case they hadn't heard the door open for some reason - but nothing. Peeking inside, I saw half of our darlings were cowering together in their nest boxes, while the other half were frozen in place along the back wall. In between all of them and the front door of their coop that signified their escape route was our oldest and largest hen, Crybaby, sitting on a very lopsided nest. With a bit of gentle coaxing I got the old gal up and on her way out of the coop, sending all the others out the door after her so they could have a go at their breakfast before the skepluvias sniffed it out. Once the dust and feathers had cleared, I was able to see exactly what had riled all of them up so badly. A newborn Skepluvian egg with a silky black shell was resting in the middle of a very large chicken nest, with our four new rescue cockerels sleeping soundly around it. As soon as I noticed the once-again busted bit of roofing overhead it was pretty easy to piece together what in the world had happened here. It was common knowledge that a scuffle of wild skepluvi lived nearby, often coming up to the edge of the fields to play and cuddle with the chickens in the evening. Many a time we've found a wild skepluvi, or evidence thereof, inside of the coops the morning after. We never minded too much as it was obvious the skepluvias were simply worried about the safety of their feathered friends, uncertain why they had to be closed up at night. But this time, the damage done was a bit less than anything a quick roof-patching could fix. I reached a hand down to check the egg's heartbeat, ensuring it was still alive as it seemed odd for a wild queen to lay a perfectly healthy newborn down so close to human property. Feeling it's soft little wiggles underneath the soft squishy shell, I quickly went back outside to look around for the wild scuffle - surely they were just sitting around at a distance somewhere, waiting for me to leave so they could pick up their little one, right? But without a single skepluvi in sight, the chances that they had any ideas about coming back for the poor ritten were slim. A bundle of annoyed chirping brought my attention back inside the coop, where I found the egg had begun to wobble, shaking some very groggy little roos out of their warm nest. One of them, whom we had dubbed Druzy, very determinedly jumped back into the nest, giving the egg a holler and a peck. I steadied the egg next to her with my hand, watching the silky black shell wrinkle as a faded tan color began to come to the surface overtop. With a very big thump, a very little set of bucked teeth tore through the soft shell from the inside, and purple tinted saliva bubbled out. It usually only takes a few minutes for a ritten to pull their egg shell away, but a very impatient Druzy was in no mood to wait that long in order to get her bed back. Before I could even scold her, the naughty chick stuck her beak into the tear and tore the egg shell apart like a messily wrapped present. A tiny set of eyes blinked open at her, sending her flying away from her cozy nest in shock. In-between the laughter, I got the newborn cleaned up and re-lined the nest with dry cotton and hay, even tossing a handful of few handfuls of sand to one side for the ritten to snuggle into. It seemed like a newborn ritten, especially a jack who would be nearly twice his current size by morning, should probably of been brought into the barn instead of being allowed to stay with the chickens - but I knew Crybaby would have something to say if she saw I took her 'very big baby chicken' away, not to mention Druzy had a curiously admiring look in her eyes from across the coop floor..
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